Saturday, January 18, 2014

(This Black Bean Chili with Lime and Cilantro that can be made in a slow cooker or on the stove is today's pick for the month of Daily Phase One Recipes. I've have a very hard time choosing just one favorite chili recipe, but this is definitely on my list of faves. You can see all the recipes from the month by clicking Daily Phase One Recipes. Check after the recipe for Phase One Flashbacks from this day in 2012 and 2013.)

One thing that can be frustrating about food blogging is that the greatest recipe in the world won't get much attention if the photo is bad, so I was happy to finally take new photos for this favorite slow cooker chili with lime and cilantro. The ultra flavorful chili includes a can of refried pinto beans as part of the base, which makes it extra thick, and I've been enjoying this the last few days with a dollop of low-fat sour cream on top. Lime and cilantro are two of my favorite ingredients, but if you're not a cilantro fan I'd replace it with thinly sliced green onions, and if you don't have a crockpot, just skip the step of reducing the beef stock, and you can make this in a regular pot on top of the stove. I hope lots of you will try this; it just might become your favorite easy chili recipe!

Start with two finely chopped onions which get sauteed in olive oil until they are nicely browned. (This adds flavor, but if you're short on time you could skip browning the onions.) Put onions in the slow cooker. (While the onions and ground beef are cooking, simmer the beef stock on the stove until it's reduced to 2 cups.)

Add a tiny bit more olive oil and cook the ground beef until it's well done, breaking apart with the turner as it cooks.

Put ground beef into the slow cooker with the onions.

When the beef stock has reduced by half, mix it with the can of refried beans.

Put the black beans into a colander in the sink and rinse well with cold water.

Heat olive oil in heavy frying pan, add chopped onions and saute 4-5 minutes, until softened and barely starting to brown. Add onions to crockpot. Add ground beef to same pan, adding more oil if needed, then brown beef well, breaking up with metal turner as it cooks. Add beef to crockpot.

While onions and beef are being cooked, put beef stock into saucepan and simmer until reduced to 2 cups. (Skip this step if cooking the chili on stovetop.) When stock is reduced, add refried beans and whisk to blend into stock, then add to crockpot.

While stock is reducing, place a colander in the sink and add canned black beans. Rinse beans well with cold water until no more foam appears. (This removes some of the salt from canned beans and makes them much more digestible.) Then add beans, stock-refried beans mixture, tomatoes, dried cilantro, chile powder, ancho chile powder, and ground cumin to crockpot. Cook on low 6-8 hours or on high 3-4 hours, or until beans are soft and flavors are well blended. When chili is done, stir in lime juice and chopped fresh cilantro and let cook 15 minutes. Serve hot, with slices of lime and additional chopped cilantro to add as garnish if desired. I like this with a dollop of low-fat sour cream.

Cooking on the Stove:
For stove-top cooking, skip the step of reducing the beef broth, but follow all other directions, adding ingredients to large soup pot and simmering at low heat about an hour.

Chili is such a perfect South Beach Diet food, since dried beans of all types are very low-glycemic, and this would be great for any phase of the South Beach Diet. (Beans are limited for Phase One, so use portion control, but for a dish like this with lots of other ingredients you can have a normal serving size.)

Nutritional Information?
I chose the South Beach Diet to manage my weight partly so I wouldn't have to count calories, carbs, points, or fat grams, but if you want nutritional information for a recipe, I recommend entering the recipe into Calorie Count, which will calculate it for you.

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Posts may include links to my affiliate account at Amazon.com, and this blog earns a few cents on the dollar if readers purchase the items I recommend, so thanks for supporting my blog when you shop at Amazon!

62 comments:

yum! We have a great chili recipe with a lime crema. http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Chipotle-Beef-Chili-with-Lime-Crema-102124I love the lime crema, but I like how your recipe is heavier on the vegetation and lighter on the beef. May have to try combining the 2 this weekend. Can't beat crockpot cooking!

I hope we're allowed to make chili without watching the Super Bowl! I'm just beginning to understand how my slow cooker works, and how great it is for bean dishes. This chili sounds delicious, and your photo make it look so appealing (and kudos to you -- I think it's hard to photograph beans!).

I have a question - maybe I'm just being foolish but does 3 cans (15oz) black beans means a) 3 x 5oz cans = 15oz total black beans or does it mean b) 3 x 15oz cans of beans = 45oz totalJust wanted to check - could be disaster if I got that wrong. I'm definitely going to make this this weekend. Thanks for a great looking recipe.

We just bought a crock pot about three weeks ago and was thinking I need to make chili with it. I was so happy to come across your blog and find this chili recipe. Will give it a try ... very soon. Thank you!

I loved this recipe and so did my family. It's even better the second day! I mentioned on my facebook page that I was making it and a good friend asked for the recipe. I didn't bother to mention I'd found it here. It's now known in her house as "Diana's Fabulous Super Bowl Chili." LOL

I made this tonight and ALMOST followed the recipe. My only alterations were to add about 1 lb of small cubed sirloin (I have a meat guy) and using mild rotel tomatoes in the place of the diced tomatoes and OMG...was it EVER spicy. I checked the rotel can to verify that I hadn't used a hot version and I hadn't. My chipotle chili powder was fresh (newly opened) the other chili not so much. Still, I used the spices as directed. So, I'm wondering if it really is supposed to have 4 TABLESPOONS of chili powder in it. I added an extra can of diced tomatoes to tune down the spice a bit. It helped.

I had made cilantro lime rice to put it over and it made it a little less spicy. The kids DEFINITELY had issues, even my son who LOVES his buffalo wings super spicy.

Ruffages, there is no Chipotle chile pepper in this recipe, so if you used that you didn't use the spices as directed, and I can imagine it was very spicy. New Mexico chile powder and Ancho chile powder are both very mild, more flavor than spice, so with those as I specified it really is supposed to be 4 T.

Yup...I figured it out going back to the other black bean chili recipe and the mention of chipotle chili powder vs ancho. That's exactly what I used. Good thing to know with all the different varieties of chili powder and how they are NOT interchangeable. This was the first recipe I have ever used with specific varieties of chili powder. Live and learn.

Thank you for posting this recipe! I just purchased a 3 qt crockpot, and with a little modification (1 can black beans instead of 3 and less chili powder), my first meal in the crockpot was amazing! Cheers.

Love this recipe! I've made it twice, and both times it was delish...perfect North Texas winter food! I couldn't find refried pintos, so I just used one can of regular pintos and mashed them up a bit. I did the stovetop vision, and used my immersion blender a little at the end to thicken it up a bit more... Yum!! Kalyn, your site is my go-to to recipes, I have never made anything I didn't love! Thanks for all that you do!!

Just loved this! I made it to my taste on the milder side, and substituted oregano for the dried cilantro because that is what I had on hand. We loved the flavors. Kalyn, what would I do without you and your fabulous recipes?

Oh my goodness! This recipe is the best. I have made this three times in the last month and every time I make it it seems to be better and better. It's my new best recipe for chili! Today for Halloween 2013 I made it for my husband to take to work for their chili cook off and he got third place! Woo Hoo... Love it! Thank you so much for sharing it with us.

Just made this tonight and it was fantastic! There's nothing better than coming home to a great-smelling house and fresh-cooked food after a long day at work. I didn't have any lime or cilantro so I substituted dried oregano and added a tablespoon of red wine vinegar. It was still delicious, and I can't wait to try it with lime when I make it again.

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